By CHRIS CHURCHILL Business writer

Published 1:00 am, Thursday, December 17, 2009

ROTTERDAM — Price Chopper is making an aggressive push into central and northern New York, bidding $54 million to acquire 22 stores owned by a grocery chain that has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Price Chopper, which already operates in much of the territory, is seeking to buy P&C stores, owned by the financially troubled Penn Traffic Co., which is headquartered in Syracuse.

The acquisition won't happen without approval from a bankruptcy judge.

The Price Chopper expansion could mean added jobs and revenue in the Capital Region. The Golub Corp., which owns the grocery chain, is based in Rotterdam but plans to move its headquarters to a recently completed building in Schenectady.

The move would also take the grocery chain into more direct competition with the popular Wegmans chain of supermarkets, which is based in Rochester and has a strong presence in central New York.

"This will be something to watch, because these are two excellent food retailers," said Willard Bishop, a Chicago-area grocery consultant. "It'll be a battle of the titans."

Both companies rank among the larger privately held companies in the nation. According to a Forbes ranking, Wegmans has 37,000 employees and annual revenue of $4.8 billion, while Price Chopper has estimated annual revenue of $3.3 billion and about 24,000 employees.

Both companies are family owned, which makes them an anomaly.

"The family-owned chains are slowly disappearing from this industry, and maybe slowly isn't even the proper adjective," Bishop said.

Neil Golub, president and chief executive of Golub Corp., on Wednesday noted that Price Chopper already competes successfully with Wegmans in several areas, including Syracuse.

Penn Traffic Co., which also operates BiLo Foods and Quality Markets stores, in November filed for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court. The 79-store company has filed for bankruptcy protection three times in the last 10 years.

The stores Price Chopper seeks to acquire are scattered, in towns and cities such as Syracuse, Pulaski, Penn Yan and Chittenango. Three of the 22 stores are outside of New York and in states — Vermont, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — where Price Chopper already has a presence.

"This company is trying to grow," Golub said.

Wegmans is also trying to grow, expanding into mid-Atlantic states and New England. But a spokeswoman on Wednesday said the company, which enjoys cult-like popularity among some grocery shoppers, has no plans for stores in the Capital Region.

"We never say never," said spokeswoman Jo Natale. "But right now, we're not planning on building stores in New York."

The purchase, if approved, wouldn't be Price Chopper's first purchase of Penn Traffic stores. Late last year, it bought P&C stores in Oswego and in Lebanon, N.H.

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at cchurchill@timesunion.com.